Remember me
Fidel Castro gave an alligator belt, rum and cigars to the British scientist who helped to create Dolly the Sheep in a bid to have him clone the communist dictator's favourite cow.
Dr Alan Colman was a member of the Roslin Institute team who developed Dolly in 1996 - the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.
The molecular biologist, based near Edinburgh, was lecturing in Cuba when Castro, who died aged 90 in 2016, approached him asking to clone his favourite cow, Ubre Blanca, meaning white udder.
Ubre Blanca had produced record-breaking amounts of milk and the communist dictator hoped cloning her would help address milk shortages in Cuba.
Castro lavished Dr Colman with gifts to try to persuade him to work on the effort but was rebuffed.
Dr Colman said: 'I lectured in Cuba and Fidel Castro got in touch with me. He was interested in whether our company could clone a cow that had been a wonderful milker.
'The cow was long since dead but they had frozen white blood cells from it in liquid nitrogen.
'He wanted to know whether we could resuscitate a herd of these very elite animals by cloning.
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro pictured with Ubre Blanca, or white udder, a cow he tried to have cloned
Dr Alan Colman said the former president showered him with gifts in a bid to have him repeat the work of the team that created Dolly the Sheep
'I said, "It might be possible but we're not interested in that use of cloning. As a company we are interested in the human medical benefits".'
He added: 'When I left Cuba I was sitting in the department lounge and three military generals came in looking for me.
'They presented me with an alligator leather belt, three bottles of premium Bacardi rum and a box of 54 Havana cigars with a card inside signed by Fidel Castro.
'All of us who were heavily involved can recount amusing stories from the years after (Dolly). There was so much excitement.'
The Cuban cow produced 110 litres (24 gallons) of milk in a single day - four times the average - in 1982 and was recognised by Guinness World Records.
Castro appeared with her on state television and boasted that no American animal could match her productivity.
Dolly, who was born in 1996, was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell
He also commissioned a marble statue of Ubre Blanca, which was erected in her hometown of Nueva Gerona.
After she was euthanised in 1985 at the age of around 13, the cow's body was stuffed and displayed in a climate-controlled glass case at the entrance to the National Cattle Health Center.
Cuban scientists tried to clone the cow in 2002 using frozen tissue samples but were unsuccessful.
Dr Colman was speaking as part of a Channel 4 documentary called Dolly: The World's Most Famous Sheep, which marks the 30th anniversary of her birth in July 2026.
Named after country music legend Dolly Parton, Dolly's birth was hailed as a landmark scientific breakthrough.
Dolly died aged six on February 14, 2003 after being diagnosed with lung disease.
She is now stuffed and mounted in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
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